Is ITV’s advert on mental health actually helping ?

As a lot of you are already aware, I am a brand ambassador for @_aspire2 who is a mental health awareness organisation. I have been a band ambassador with them since June last year and I have gotten to know a few of the people really well and can literally have a debate about mental health without any judgement at all.

This is where this blog post was inspired by because Me and @grecy14 and @_aspire2 were talking about the tragic death of a tv presenter called Caroline flack and how our media aren’t doing enough to raise awareness of mental health.

One of @_aspire2 latest Instagram posts was about there digital newspapers and getting more sponsors to sponsor there company and getting there organised reached by a wider audience

The question I keep seeing and what I and @_aspire2 & @grecy14 was discussing was, whether ITV’s campaign advert against mental health is actually working or not? So I decided I wanted to discuss it in a blog post and see what everyone else thought.

I know that there are people who follow me from all around the world who might not have a clue what I’m on about, so I will link it for you.

Is an advert about mental health helping?

The question I have got, is having an advert on television going to help spread the awareness around mental health and actually getting people to talk?

I’m in two minds to be honest, as you are all already aware I am very honest and will not lie to you and will definitely give you my honest opinion.

On one side I think it’s great that mental health is getting talked about by wider networks and reaching wider audiences because that is what we have been asking for ages. But is a television advert actually going to work? Or is it a waste of time, money & resources?

On the other side of the argument, I see it from two different perspectives; one from someone is vulnerable, lonely, lives by there selves and maybe actually already suffers from a mental health illness and the other perspective of just a general ‘normal’ couple or family watching tv.

3 different perspectives

Person A – Lonely single person

So try and put yourselves in the situation of someone who lives by themselves for whatever reason, if you have got a campaign of the tv saying ‘talk to each other’ who has that person got to talk to. In respect of person A, you might not actually be helping them because actually, they might feel more lonely and isolated.

Person B – a person who lives with a mental health illness

Again try and put yourself in the situation of someone who is suffering from a mental health illness, you are feeling depressed, anxious, isolated and lonely. For someone who is suffering from a mental health illness, I think for them to talk to someone can be very hard to speak out and this can sometimes make them feel even more isolated.

Person c – family or couple

It’s the last time I’ll ask you to do this I promise, try and put yourself in the shoes of someone who is a family person and lives with there another half. If you have got all of the up to date technology you might have Sky or virgin in which you can fast forward adverts meaning you would ignore the advert.

There you go there are 3 different people with 3 different lives but all could have one thing in common which is they could suffer from a mental health illness.

My verdict

Even after writing this blog post I still am unsure whether I actually think this advert is doing any good and is actually helping. Personally, I would like to see proof that watching a tv advert about starting to talk is actually going to help because I’ve done a lot of research before writing this blog post and still haven’t found anything.

I’ve watched this tv advert several times when I’m watching something in ITV, at the beginning I thought I would give it the benefit of the doubt as it was new but the more I watch it the more questions I have got and the more unsure I am.

I know that everyone will have there own personal opinion and that is perfectly fine just like I have and this is my personal opinion.

@_aspire2 message

This is what @_aspire2 have said and I think they have summed it up perfectly to be honest I couldn’t of said it better myself.

I think the saddest thing for me is that both me and the senior ceo of the company have emailed and phoned so many companies and they palm us off just simply because its mental health, then something comes up, and everyone hypes it up then it dies down, itv did this campaign, whats come of it? the death of a beautiful woman and a tv presenter…

think its time people start asking the question to inspirational people and celebrities not

‘do you support mental health’

more like

‘what are you doing for mental health?’

what have they done… nothing as im aware the only people that have done something is the met police and have referred themselves to the watchdog?

What do you think? Do you think it will help people get talking?

Remember please be kind to each other, think before you speak, think before you type. Your words can affect someone and their family !! Be kind 💗

Thank you for the support as always, If you enjoyed this post please like and comment and follow. If you would like to help me to make my website self-hosted then please use the link, it would be greatly appreciated https://ko-fi.com/D1D4V3G4

Until next time 😊